Nursing accreditation: what's a librarian got to do with it?

ABNF Journal, The, March-April, 2003 by Cynthia Burke

   Nurses who fail to upgrade their skills will be left
   behind by workplace changes--either in low-wage,
   dead-end positions, or underemployed or unemployed.
   Agencies that fail to support nurses in their quest for
   new skills will be outclassed by their more enlightened
   competitors. Competencies and lifelong learning are
   the answers for a competitive future

As librarians seek avenues to further demonstrate their worth to faculty, administration, and students, librarians have a role in helping to ensure that each school and department on their campuses meet and exceed accrediting standards.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

Dr. Bertha Davis, Assistant Dean for Research; Dr. Pamela V. Hammond, Dean; Ms. Ina Whitehead, School of Nursing Editor; Hampton University School of Nursing Faculty; Hampton University School of Nursing Secretaries

REFERENCES

Bellack, J. P., Gelmon, S. B., O'Neil, E. H., & Thomssen, C. L. (1999). Responses of baccalaureate and graduate programs to the emergence of choice in nursing accreditation. Journal of Nursing Education, 38, 53-61.

Felton, G., Abbe, S., Gilbert, C., & Ingle, J. R. (2000). How does NLNAC support the Pew Health Commission Competencies? Nursing and Health Care Perspectives, 21, 53.

Overbay, J. D., & Aaltonen, P. M. (2001). A comparison of NLNAC and CCNE accreditation. Nurse Educator, 26, 17-22.

Van Ort, S., & Townsend, J. (2000). Community-based nursing education and nursing accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 16, 30-335.

Cynthia Burke, MLS, AHIP, is an Assistant Professor & Librarian at the Hampton University School of Nursing, Hampton, VA. She has served in this role since 1997. Ms. Burke is the author of a chapter in Diversity in Libraries: Academic Residency Programs (Greenwood Press, 2001). Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of the "Hampton University Nursing Information System (HU-NIS)," a 3-year grant funded by the National Library of Medicine(NLM). Her research interests include information literacy and student outcomes. Ms. Burke's interests include genealogy.

Ms. Burke received her B.A. in English from Hampton University, and her Master of Library Science from North Carolina Central University. She is a former NLM Associate and completed the NLM Medical Informatics Fellowship at Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA. Ms. Burke is a member of the Medical Library Association and the American Library Association.